Months later, Benaissa released Alles wird gut, her first autobiography, and relocated to Berlin where she withdrew from the public eye to pass her Abitur exams, and qualified as an event manager.

[4] Raised alongside her three years older brother Amin,[5] she spent much of her childhood in Langen, where her parents worked in the catering business, and she attended the Geschwister-Scholl-Schule.

[7] In her early teenage years, she began writing songs, and at the age of 13 Benaissa started performing in several cover bands within the Frankfurt area,[7] eventually winning the second place at Jugend musiziert, a supraregional music contest for youths.

[8] On 25 October 1999,[7] at the age of 17, Benaissa gave birth to her daughter Leila Jamila, an event which she describes as "the proudest moment of [her] life".

[7] In mid-2000, Benaissa, along with thousands of other women, applied for the debut installment of the German reality television program Popstars, a talent show looking to put together an all-female band.

Sailing through the selection process, judges Simone Angel, Rainer Moslener and Mario M. Mendryzcki were generally impressed by her performances, which earned her a position in the top ten finalists despite her struggle with dancing choreography.

Initially hesitant about signing a recording contract which would force her to leave her baby daughter with her parents, the show's producers remained persuasive and Benaissa eventually agreed on joining the band.

[3] With the final five members of the band in place, Popstars continued tracking the development and struggles of the group who left homes to move into a shared flat near Munich, Bavaria.

[9] Suffering from the separation from her daughter, Benaissa burned out within months, a subject on which she later commented: "I was completely unprepared, overwhelmed with the work and the fame.

[11] While her former bandmates pursued solo careers in music and television, Benaissa, who had suffered from intense sleep deprivation,[12] decided to focus on her recovered motherhood the following months.

[7] In June 2006, Benaissa participated in another non-profit-making aid project when she provided vocals for the Fury in the Slaughterhouse cover, "Won't Forget These Days", released during the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

[16][17] She was remanded into custody, after a judge ruled there was a danger she might repeat the alleged offence,[18] but eventually released on 21 April 2009, subject to unnamed conditions.

In December 2018, she, along with The Real Rogers & Friends gospel band, served as a backing vocalist at singer Mariah Carey's Christmas concert in Berlin.

[35] Released to strong streaming numbers in November 2020, a revived interest from the media and their fan base prompted Benaissa and her former band mates to launch an official Instagram account through which they began sharing private photos and hosted several livestreams in the weeks following.

[36] With BMG interested in issuing updated versions of their early catalog, the quartet re-formed in January 2021 to record 20, their first full-length album release since 2009, with plans to expand the anniversary celebrations.

[43] From April to May 2024, she competed as Elgonia on the tenth season of the German adaption of the reality singing competition television series The Masked Singer, finishing in fourth place.